A mass spectrometer is a highly specialised and accurate analytical apparatus for separating isotopes, molecules and molecular fragments according to their mass. Broadly speaking, a mass spectrometer comprises an ion source, analyser and a detector.
Each of these parts comprises a plurality of complex components, including but not limited to electrical, mechanical, electromechanical, or software components; or a combination thereof. Given the requirement for high accuracy and resolution in the analyses performed by a mass spectrometer, the operation of at least some of these myriad components must be accurately controlled in a synchronised manner.
The components of many existing mass spectrometers are connected across a fixed backplane, using parallel analogue signals, which arrangement provides adequate latency and speed in the communication between the logical components to ensure synchronisation. Nevertheless, such an arrangement is inflexible when reconfiguring, maintaining, repairing and/or upgrading the mass spectrometer. Moreover, the arrangement requires a central processor to control all of the components. There can be particularly high demand on the processor for certain operations of the mass spectrometer. Furthermore, the fixed backplane arrangement of a conventional mass spectrometer requires a large physical envelope.
The conventional control architecture is bespoke for a particular mass spectrometer, and thus inflexible when designing or reconfiguring mass spectrometers.